Bugs Bunny animator Bob Givens dies at 99

[Mr Allen]

Link.

Apparently he animated a lot of the old Loony Tunes characters back in the late 1930's and beyond.

 

[Mattymatt]

Sad. Those old Loony Tunes are still my favorite.

 

[WereBear]

I adore Bugs Bunny.

 

[pjcnet]

Wow, that's a very good age, but it's still sad when someone passes away, especially when there's so much talent.

It's odd that most news articles are very recent when other reports state he died on the 14th December 2017 and a few articles were published not long after that date too.

Some people are calling Bob Givens the creator of Bugs Bunny when this isn't truly the case. Chase Craig, a member of Tex Avery's cartoon unit summed things up pretty well when he wrote, "Bugs was not the creation of any one man but rather represented the creative talents of perhaps five or six directors and many cartoon writers. In those days, the stories were often the work of a group who suggested various gags, bounced them around and finalised them in a joint story conference". Bob Givens did however greatly help shape Bugs Bunny as we know the cartoon character today and animate it (he was also helped by Tex Avery and Mel Blanc who voiced various characters including Bugs Bunny). For more info please see the video below which does mention Bob Givens amongst the credits for Bugs Bunny:

We cannot deny however that Bob Givens had a huge amount of talent and he also animated other much loved Looney Tunes characters as well as Disney and Hanna Barbera characters at a time long before modern computer technology made animation much easier, faster and cheaper.

For a list of some of his many credits please click here.

Bob Givens RIP.

 

[Butterfly88]

May he rest in peace. I used to like Loony Tunes as a kid.

 

[Ameriblush]

I had no deal he was still alive! :0

 

[WereBear]

Back in the day, the studios put their stamp on all of their product, which included the cartoons which would play before the two movies, A feature and B feature. (This is where the term "B movies" came from. They had smaller budgets, talent on their way up or down, and mostly genre themes.) This is how a "night at the movies," which included newsreels too, was a real night.

Warner Brothers were known for gritty works with a metropolitan feel, while MGM loved feel-good musicals and high-toned dramas, with a lot of historical or rural appeal. So it followed that Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes featured a wisecracking rabbit who, despite his country setting, would feel at home on a city street. While the MGM Tom and Jerry cartoons took place in more suburban settings.

I was always far more of a Looney Tunes fan. The subversive tone of the humor, the defined characters, and the incomparable voice stylings of Mel Blanc are still my favorites.

I regard Bugs Bunny as my spirit animal

 

[Mattymatt]

I actually had a college writing class on cartoons. They were not originally written for children. They have adult humor and undertones.